Marathi Manoos

I don’t speak Marathi and I have been living in Maharashtra for the last three and a half years. Someone called Raj wants me lynched because I’m taking away jobs from the Marathi Manoos and I’m also disrespecting his culture. I should no longer stay in Maharashtra.
Well, I'm part of a population that is close to 60% in major Maharashtrian cities like Mumbai and Pune, that runs all the major companies that Maharashtra (that boasts of being the state with one of the highest GDPs in India) gets its revenue, investments and jobs from.
Should I still be asked to leave? Well, let’s see…

I have been living in Pune for the last 2 years. When I first came here, the road in front of my house was a very smooth and wide road. Then, the telephone company had to stuff some wires under it, they dug it up and never fixed it properly. Now, children who are used to playing on this road, fall and injure themselves regularly, I see so many vehicles not able to travel on the road. In fact my mother had a bad fall the other day because of the unevenness of the road and my landlady’s asthma attacks have become more frequent due to the dust on the road. I wonder how many people this Raj, the savior of Marathi’s, has lynched for spoiling this road.

Every year at least a thousand farmers and their families die or commit suicide in Maharashtra because their crops fail. The irrigation system has to be improved. More importantly, these farmers have to be saved from the hands of ruthless money lenders by introducing better credit facilities for them. Are these farmers biharis or bengalis? Are they immigrants? I don’t think so. Are they not Marathi manoos? Hasn’t the government not disrespected their lives by not taking care of it? I wonder how many politicians, Raj lynched for the loss of so many Marathi lives.

The reason for lack of jobs among Maharashtrians is illiteracy. Maharashtra stands at 77%, which is above average for an Indian state but, if you look at the literacy rates among Maharashtrians alone, it is pretty low. The state government needs to look at implementing compulsory education till 10th standard and looking at ways to introduce vocational training in Marathi medium schools. Look at increasing the female literacy rate which stands at 66%. We don’t see too many scholarships or grants for brilliant Marathi students. How many from the education department have got lynched for eating up taxpayers’ money? None.

So, are we hoping to get more jobs for Maharashtrians by lynching non-maharashtrians? Sir Raj, let me inform you – You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

What Raj and his political colleagues are trying to do is, distract the Marathi Manoos from the real issues and, get him involved in some fighting and rioting, while he and his friends can stuff their large pockets, with the Marathi Manoos’ money. Tell me, is it more important for me to learn Marathi than getting roads repaired? More important than saving a 1000 lives by using the state funds for giving credit and better irrigation systems to farmers, more important than using state funds to give out educational grants and to introduce vocational training in schools?

They are all in it together, all the parties. They all think that the Marathi Manoos is a dumb chicken. They are all fooling you everyday with their rhetoric. Are you that helpless, that you can’t find yourself a job? Does a politician have to send his goons to beat up other people because you can’t find yourself a job, ‘cause you are not qualified enough. Why can’t they instead give you an opportunity to be more qualified? Or do they think this is the best you can do? What wrong did the poor old bihari man do, who lost his only son to lynching? His son was doing what you too should have been doing; looking for a job.

Wake up Marathi Manoos, you are being under estimated, you need to prove yourself, not by beating another man up, but by proving you are as good as the rest. Don’t forget, even a group of pygmies can kill someone found in their territory. Today, when a colored man; with a Kenyan father and an Indonesian step father; educated in a madrasa for 2 years, and a surname that rhymes with the name of his country’s greatest enemy, can be the President of the United States, the possibilities are infinite. So don’t stop till you get enough…